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Arts and Crafts Movement Film Project

The Arts and Crafts Movement in the University of Victoria Art Collection:
by Holly Cecil, Undergraduate, Art History and Visual Studies Dept. major (Honours).

This series of documentary shorts analyzes key workshops and designers in the Arts & Crafts Movement through representative objects in the University of Victoria Legacy Art Galleries collection. The objects featured in the videos also demonstrate the wide range of materials and processes that Arts & Crafts artisans perfected, from ceramics to furniture; and stained glass to metalwork, including silver, silver-plate, copper, brass and pewter. The films were produced in 2015, supported by a JCURA research grant.

Click here for research links and references.

Object featured in The Guild of Handicraft: 

 R. Ashbee (1863–1942) for the Guild of Handicraft, England I Muffin Dish, c. 1902-1908

 

Object featured in Ruskin Pottery:

 Ruskin Pottery, England I Brooch, c. 1905

Object featured in Archibald Knox and Liberty & Co.:

Liberty & Co., England I Tudric Compote, c. 1905

 

Objects featured in Copper Workshops in the Arts & Crafts Movement:

Unknown Artist, England I Firescreen, c. 1910

Unknown Artist, England I Coal Scuttle, c. 1900

 

Object featured in Tiffany Studios:

Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) for Tiffany Studios, United States I Original Tiffany Lamp 

c. 1902 -1932

 

Objects featured in Roycroft Workshops:

Roycroft Workshops, United States I Copper Tray, c. 1910 

Roycroft Workshops, United States I Copper Candlesticks, c. 1905

Roycroft Workshops, United States I Copper Vase, c. 1905-1910

 

Object featured in American Craftsman Workshops: 

Gustav Stickley (1858 – 1942) for Craftsman Workshops, United States I Chair, c. 1900

 

Object featured in Rookwood Pottery: 

Unknown Artist, United States I Vase, c. 1919 

Unknown Artist, United States I Vase, c. 1914 

 

Interviews

Full-length interview with William Morris Society and Museum Curator, Helen Elletson (England, 2014). 08:26 min. 

 

Full-Length Interview with University of Victoria Professor, Martin Segger (Canada, 2014). 14:11 min. 

Credits

This undergraduate research project, completed in the Art History and Visual Studies (AHVS) Department, University of Victoria (Canada), was supported by a Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Award (JCURA), 2014. Research supervisor: Prof. Erin Campbell, AHVS Department, University of Victoria.

Acknowledgments: I would like to thank the following professors and curators who shared their research, knowledge and enthusiasm for these topics:

At the University of Victoria:

  • Professor Erin Campbell, AHVS Department
  • Caroline Riedel, Curator of Collections, Legacy Art Gallery, Victoria
  • Emerald Johnstone-Bedell, Legacy Art Gallery
  • Professor Martin Segger, AHVS Department

In England:

  • Helen Elletson, Curator, William Morris Society, Hammersmith, England
  • Ray Liegh and Trevor Chinn, The Gordon Russell Trust Design Museum
  • Derek Elliott, silversmith, at Hart Silversmiths, Chipping Campden
  • Janice Fisher, Curator, Court Barn, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, England
  • Carol Jackson, Chipping Campden Historical Society, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, England

Contact Holly Cecil: cecil@uvic.ca

© Holly Cecil 2015 (where applicable)

 

Credits

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Credits

Curator Magna Mater: Caroline Riedel; with contributions from Emerald Johnstone-Bedell, Josie Greenhill, Bradley Clements, Ava Hansen

 

Acknowledgements

Exhibitions are always major undertakings and we wish to thank the following people for their help in bringing these two shows together: David Broome, Michael Huston, Studios for Integrated Media, UVic Fine Arts Department for help with the website, photographs and technical assistance for the digital component of the exhibition, as well as Katie Hughes for designing the website and catalogue. Thank you also to Special Collections and Archives staff members Nadica Lora, John Frederick and Associate Director Heather Dean for loaning material from the University’s holdings. We also thank Heather Dean for agreeing to undertake the digitization of the Maltwood fonds and the assistance of Lisa Goddard, Library Collections Management. Robbyn Gordon Lanning’s directed fieldwork project “Seeking the Tree of Life” and digital collections site is an invaluable resource as well as the impetus for digitizing the Maltwood fonds. Thank you also to Martin Segger for his expertise in all things Maltwood. Gratitude aditionally goes to our fellow Legacy staffers Roger Huffman (collections and exhibit design), Katie Hughes (graphic design) and Emerald Johnstone Bedell (artifact prep and exhibit graphic design), for your patience and resourcefulness with all of the intricacies of this exhibition. And finally, thank you to our supervisors Dr. Erin Campbell (Art History and Visual Studies) and Mary Jo Hughes (Director, Legacy Art Galleries) for your support and enthusiasm for this project.

 

 

 

 

Research Links and References

Collected Textual Works, Chronology, Art & Socialism Lectures

Arts & Crafts Movement Design Collections:

William Morris and Arts & Crafts House Museums:

Exhibitions / Installations:

Textile Collections:

William Morris Gallery – Museum of the Year 2013 from The Art Fund on Vimeo.

Recommended Reading:

  • Anscombe, Isabelle and Charlotte Gere, Arts and Crafts in Britain and America, (London, England: Academy Editions, 1978).
  • Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. Arts and Crafts Essays by Members of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. 1893; rpt. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1903.
  • Carruthers, Annette, Ernest Gimson and the Cotswold Group of Craftsmen: A Catalogue of Works by Ernest Gimson, Ernest, Sidney and Edward Barnsley and Peter Waals in the Collections of Leicestershire Museums, (Leicester, England: Hemmings & Capey, 1978).
  • Crawford, Alan,
    • “Ideas and Objects: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain,” Design Issues 13:1 (Spring, 1997), 15-26.
    • C. R. Ashbee: Architect, Designer and Romantic Socialist, (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005).
  • Cumming, Elizabeth, and Wendy Kaplan, The Arts and Crafts Movement, (New York and London: Thames and Hudson, 1991).
  • Faulkner, Peter, Against the Age: An Introduction to William Morris, (London, England: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1980).
  • Gerard, John (1545-1612), The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes, (Imprinted at London: by Edm. Bollifant for Bonham Norton and Iohn Norton, 1597).
  • Glasier, John Bruce, William Morris and the Early Days of the Socialist Movement,
    (Bristol, England: Hoemmes Press, 1994).
  • Greensted, Mary,
    • An Anthology of the Arts and Crafts Movement: Writings by Ashbee, Lethaby, Gimson and their Contemporaries, (Aldershot, Hampshire: Lund Humphries, 2005).
    • The Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain, (Oxford, England: Shire Publications, 2010).
  • Henderson, Philip, William Morris: His Life, Work, and Friends, (New York, USA: McGraw-Hill, 1967).
  • Jones, Owen, The Grammar of Ornament, (London: Bernard Quaritch, 1910).
  • Kaplan, Wendy, ed., The Arts & Crafts Movement in Europe and America: Design for the Modern World, (New York, USA: Thames & Hudson, 2010).
  • Kellert, Stephen R., Birthright: People and Nature in the Modern World, (New
    Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012).
  • Livingstone, Karen and Linda Parry, International Arts and Crafts, (London: 2005).
  • Lochnan, Katharine A., Douglas E. Schoenherr, Carole Silver, Eds.
    The Earthly Paradise: Arts and Crafts by William Morris and His Circle from
    Canadian Collections    , (Ontario, Canada: Art Gallery of Canada, 1993).
  • MacCarthy, Fiona,
    • William Morris: A Life for Our Time,
      (London, England: Faber and Faber, 1994).
    • The Simple Life: C. R. Ashbee in the Cotswolds, (London: Lund Humphries, 1981).
  • Mackail, J.W., The Life of William Morris, (London, England: Longmans, Green & Co., 1922).
  • Morris, William: (view all his works at The William Morris Internet Archive):
    • The Collected Works of William Morris, May Morris, Ed., (22 Vols.), (London, England: Longmans, Green & Co., 1910-1915).
    • “Useful Work versus Useless Toil,” (lecture, 1885), published in
      “Signs of Change,” 1888.
    • “Signs of Change: How we Live and How We Might Live,” 1888.
    • “Facing the Worst of It,” Commonweal, 3:58, 19 February 1887.
    • “Some Hints on Pattern-Designing,” 1884
    • “Why I Am a Socialist,” 1884.
    • “The Lesser Arts of Life,” 1882.
    • “Art and the Beauty of the Earth,” Lecture 13th October 1881.
    • “The History of Pattern Designing,” Lecture 8th April 1879.
  • Naylor, Gillian,
    • William Morris By Himself: Designs and Writings, (London,
      England: Macdonald Orbis, 1988).
    • The Arts and Crafts Movement: A Study of Its Sources, Ideals, and Influence on Design Theory, (London, England: Studio Vista Publishers, 1971).
  • Parry, Linda:
    • Textiles of the Arts and Crafts Movement, (London, England: Thames & Hudson, 2005).
    • William Morris, (London, England: Philip Wilson Publishers, 1996).
    • William Morris Textiles, (London, England: George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Limited, 1983). New reprint 2013.
  • Poulson, Christine, William Morris, (London, England: The Apple Press, 1989).
  • Ruskin, John, “The Nature of Gothic,” in The Stones of Venice, (London, England: Faber and Faber, 1981).
  • Singer, Peter, The Expanding Circle: Ethics and Sociobiology, (New York, USA: Farrar,
    Straus & Giroux, 1981).
  • Taylor, Angus, “Inhaling All the Forces of Nature: William Morris’s Socialist Biophilia,”
    Trumpeter Journal of Ecosophy, 14:4 (1997).
  • Thompson, E.P. William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary,
    (London, England: Lawrence & Wishart Ltd., 1955).
  • Thompson, Paul, The Work of William Morris, (New York, USA: The Viking Press, 1967).
  • Vallance, Aymer, William Morris: His Art, His Writings, and His Public Life: A Record, (London, England: G. Bell, 1898).
  • Waggoner, Diane, Ed., ‘The Beauty of Life’: William Morris & the Art of Design,
    (New York, USA: Thames & Hudson, 2003).
  • Wilson, Edward O., The Biophilia Hypothesis, eds. Stephen R. Kellert and Edward O.
    Wilson, (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1995).

 

© Holly Cecil 2015 (where applicable)

Pottery

 

Birmingham’s Ruskin Pottery became a leading ceramics workshop in the British Arts and Crafts Movement. Their innovative glazes produced vibrant colours and small cabochon plaques were centrepieces in the fashionable art jewelry of the period.

 

© Holly Cecil 2015 (where applicable)

Metalwork

 

The British Arts and Crafts Movement elevated base metals like brass and copper into a fashionable aesthetic.

This silver-plated muffin dish was designed by C. R. Ashbee and made by the Guild of Handicraft between 1902 and 1908. A brief history of the Guild of Handicraft and its influential role in the British Arts and Crafts Movement completes the film.

 

 

This video presents an elegant pewter compote c. 1910, made by Liberty and Co. as part of their extensive Tudric pewter line. The creative work of Liberty designer Archibald Knox is also explored.

 

© Holly Cecil 2015 (where applicable)

 

 

Pottery

 

Rookwood Pottery became a leading art pottery in the American Arts and Crafts Movement. This video explores its founder and designers who developed innovative glazes and firing techniques to elevate American ceramics to international recognition.

 © Holly Cecil 2015 (where applicable)

 

Stained Glass

 

This video looks at the life and career of New York designer Louis Comfort Tiffany who developed innovative techniques in stained glass production, such as this Lily Pad themed lamp with an art glass shade. Tiffany lamps were some of the first electric lamps produces before 1900.

 

© Holly Cecil 2015 (where applicable)

Metalwork

This video features hand-wrought copper candlesticks, a vase and tray, c. 1905-1910. A brief history of the Roycroft Workshops in New York State describes its founder Elbert Hubbard and his role in the American Arts and Crafts Movement.

© Holly Cecil 2015 (where applicable)